The Wedding
by The Half Mad Muggle
Summary: Til death, do we part. SS/RL.


**The Wedding**

SS/RL - and written for my Remus. Part of my Severus and Remus universe.

* * *

He stared around at the devastation. Glasses of champagne, shattered and lying in pieces upon the grass. Banners stripped and ripped and torn. Bodies, life stolen from them, left scattered. There was utter silence.

He could smell blood. Blood and death.

He stepped forward, his left boot crumpling an already torn tablecloth, forcing it further into the mud. He turned his eyes to the ground, eyes performing the task his heart wished to deny.

For he was looking for someone. Not looking for someone. He did not know how he would react. He just needed to know -

His gaze had latched onto something familiar. His legs moved before his brain had formulated the action.

A cardigan, lying abandoned - torn - stained - he knelt beside the single piece of clothing, picking it up from the churned grass. His fingertips caressed the soft material. There was a button missing, the third from the bottom. How many times had he said, to get a new button? How many times had it been ignored?

He could not help himself. He lifted the cardigan to his face and inhaled, just once.

Chocolate. Straight to his stomach, shooting along the crisscrossing of nerves under his skin. It choked him, filling his mouth with an unpleasant taste and burning the backs of his eyes. Musk. Tickling the inside of his nostrils, conjuring images - intimate images - how else could he know the very taste of that pale skin -

His voice was a hoarse whisper, just one among the dead. A whisper of denial.

"Remus."

He did not expect an answer.

"I left it for you. I had hoped you would come." The voice was soft, gentle. He raised his head, caught unawares, unable to reach for his wand - unable to defend himself - turning on his knees so their gazes met in mid air. And found he could not speak.

Remus Lupin folded his arms over his white shirt, seeming almost naked without a cardigan - face pale, a new scar across his arm - wand in hand. But he was not aiming it. It was resting against his shoulder, diagonally pointed toward the sky. If he so wanted, he could summon Aurors and they could be there in a heartbeat.

They could capture the murderer of Albus Dumbledore, because he had not been able to resist the call of his own emotions. "…I…" And still, the words caught in his throat. They choked him, stifling air from his lungs, and he looked away, wondering what Remus saw.

Remus took a step forward, lowering his wand and hand to his side. "Why did you come?"

_I had to know. _"He sent me."

"Liar." Remus knew him too well. They knew each other too well. Except for his reaction. Would Remus arrest him? Would he put an end to all of this? This game, that he was too tired to play? He chose to gamble with, "I needed to know."

Remus considered him. "This was a wedding. It was supposed to be the happiest day of their lives."

He flinched, not because he cared for the apparently happy couple. But because Remus did not care either. Not to the extent he was pretending. Remus cared because this was not the first wedding the Dark Mark and the Death-Eaters and Lord Voldemort had managed to sabotage. Somewhere in the blur that was last year, there had been a proposal, an acceptance, a murder - and a shattering of two hearts, and the rhythm that had once been the same.

He had the decency to look away from Remus. "Why have you come?"

And Remus did what Remus always did. He threw his own words back, "I needed to _know_."

He could reach for his wand. He could end this. "Know what?"

Remus echoed his question. "Know what?"

And what did it matter, anyway? He was already beaten - his days were numbered, as were those of the Lord he had sworn to serve. So he answered, and he told the truth. "I needed to know you were safe."

Remus smiled. It was soft, faint, but still a smile. The smile that had once caused a heart to skip a beat.

Once?

"I needed to know that _you_ were alive." Remus offered as his explanation. Alive was not used in the literal term. It was a metaphor - and Remus was close on his analysis - for he had never felt so numb, and cold, and dead - as the night on the Astronomy Tower, and the days and weeks afterward. Because they were being honest, he thought he could risk one more statement. "I miss you." It took more out of him, to make that announcement, than he had initially considered. He felt his heart threaten to break. Again.

Remus closed the distance between them, and he flinched. He flinched because he could not stand to be so close to him. The one person who could make him feel so -

"Severus." Remus knelt next to him. He put his wand down on the ground, deliberately so. His fingers plucked the cardigan from Severus' suddenly limp grasp, and entwined their hands instead. "I know."

Severus stared at him, black eyes scrutinising that brown gaze, he knew so well - "You…know…"

Remus ignored his broken repetition and casually brushed his other fingers against the dark hair against Severus' cheek. "You need a hair cut."

"You need to eat something." Severus shot back, realising too late he had admitted that he had examined Remus' figure in the time they had been talking. Remus smiled at this thoughtless admission and let his fingers drop to rest on Severus' shoulder. "Ah, Severus. Been looking, again, have you?" His expression sobered. "This was a wedding."

"I'm sorry." Severus managed, finally, "I tried to warn them - I did my best…"

Remus pressed his index finger to Severus' lips, hushing him. "Don't apologise. I did not mean that." He paused, before speaking again. "I do."

Severus raised an eyebrow, confused.

"Take you - to be my lawfully wedded husband - in sickness and in health - to love and to cherish - for richer, for poorer - until death, do we part."

Severus stared at him.

"I love you, Severus."

_I had to know_.

"Thank you."

"So, Severus. Will you take me, too?"

Severus nodded, but had lost the ability to speak. So Remus did the only thing he could. He kissed him. It was soft and gentle and light - not demanding - practically just a brush across his lips - but it was a kiss nonetheless, and one that Severus had missed. "I do." He managed to murmur, and Remus grinned. "Glad to hear it." He glanced around. "You should not be here. If they find you - "

"I know." Severus answered carefully.

"I hear rumours. Headmaster of Hogwarts."

"You hear correctly."

Sympathy. "You will manage this, Severus. You will." Remus held both his hands, tightly, "We will have all the time we need, soon."

"To start again?" Severus could not bear that. He could not bear the thought of a clean sheet. Not where Remus was concerned…

"We're not finished, Severus. We are not 'over'." And Remus could always be relied upon to find something truly sentimental and soppy to say. "We are only just beginning."

One more kiss, longer, deeper, harder - but it had to end - as all good things did.

And when Remus was walking away, he left his cardigan in Severus' lap. And he looked back. And Severus raised his head, fingers twisting into the soft material. "I love you too."

_I had to know._


End file.
